~By Apoorva Gaur  

Finding no merit in the special leave petition seeking re-opening of Mahatma Gandhi assassination case, the Supreme Court bench of Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao dismissed it saying it would be “an exercise in futility”.

In a five page order, the bench rejected the contentions of the petitioner Mumbai-based researcher Pankaj Phadnis, who is a trustee of the Abhinav Bharat charitable trust that four bullets were fired on Gandhi instead of three.

While rejecting the four bullets theory, the bench said: “Learned Amicus Curiae categorically submitted that perusal of original photograph at the museum leads to no such inference. We consider the petitioner’s attempt to reopen this controversy as an exercise in futility. Since the person who took the photograph cannot be examined and any statement about the photograph made by any expert would not be admissible at this stage.”

The apex court also refused to investigate into the truthfulness or evenhandedness of the findings of the Kapur Commission formed to examine into the conspiracy to kill Gandhi.

“There is no doubt that this finding does not in any way interferes with the acquittal and is a general observation probably made since Godse and others were found to have been associated with Shri Savarkar. It cannot have the effect of overturning of the finding of the criminal court which acquitted Shri Savarkar,” the bench noted referring to Constitution bench verdict of the apex court.

The great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, Tushar A Gandhi had written an opinion piece (http://www.indialegallive.com/viewpoint/tushar-gandhi-why-i-oppose-the-plea-to-reinvestigate-the-gandhi-murder-case-38724) in India Legal on this case in which he said “reopening the case could be the desire to whitewash the findings of the Kapur Commission that had implicated Hindutva ideologue Veer Savarkar and the RSS”.

Access the full copy of the judgement here.